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When Creativity Goes Beyond Content

PARIS — The singer Roisin Murphy, her seven months of pregnancy hidden under layers of yellow tulle, stood on a plinth, facing a giant globe.

Already, before one long, sweet note had been sung, the backdrop to the Viktor & Rolf show was extraordinary: surreal shapes like a Dali-esque tableau.

And then there were the clothes: Surreal to a degree, as bushy turquoise tulle frills edged sleeves, an eagle wing of lavender net spread from thigh to ear, or twin panniers at the hips bulked out a slender dress. Only occasionally, hidden under the bushels, was there a full vision of normal clothes, perhaps a blouse lightly perforated or overalls with barely a trace of the hedgerow.

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Viktor Horsting and Ralph Snoeren said "the world is cutting back so we literally started cutting away chunks of the ballgowns.''Credit
Chris Moore/Karl Prouse

Toward the end, the tulle became wilder, framing the outfits until full skirted evening gowns were shot through from back to front with holes or bits were hacked away at the side as if by a gardener on acid.

“Credit crunch couture — the world is cutting back so we literally started cutting away chunks of the ballgowns — and with the remnants we created new clothes,” Viktor Horsting said backstage with Ralph Snoeren. Although the message seemed mixed as the brand’s public relations representatives were saying that the inspiration was Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire dancing to visual oblivion.

Whatever. A concept can go too far to be fashion. Quite apart from the fact that Hussein Chalayan did the topiary tulle trimming with more grace, style and inventiveness a decade ago, this Viktor & Rolf show was just pointless.

The answer to what on earth was going on could be found in the audience, where bottles of the duo’s about-to-be-introduced new fragrance “Eau-mega” lay on the bleachers. Thanks to a collaboration with L’Oréal, which has captured the witty conceptualism of the design duo, they have built up a “mega” perfume business. Perhaps the next fragrance could be named “Tulle, tulle much.”

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Since Martin Margiela's apparent departure, a team has been making a pastiche of his vision. Credit
Chris Moore/Karl Prouse

But if the Viktor and Rolf show was silly, the Maison Martin Margiela’s effort was tragic. Here is a house named for a designer who over a 20-year span sent out powerful and imaginative collections that captured the cultural mood of the moment and produced unforgettable clothes.

Since the reclusive Belgian designer’s apparent departure, a “team” has been making a pastiche of Mr. Margiela’s vision. What might have looked passable on paper, was not so in paper: cardboard boots that, when they were not covered with cutout doilies of flowers like trimmings for a kitsch wedding, had “Hello Hawaii!” painted pictures. They also looked like a pastiche — but of Prada’s beach print’s shown in Milan last month.

As if stumbling around in this wonky footwear were not enough, the models had to cope with dresses that trailed chains on the end of their trains. Considering that creativity is the lifeblood of fashion and every other Paris fashion house is tapping new talent, why would Maison Martin Margiela not try the same — unless they believe, as many others might, that Mr. Margiela is irreplaceable.

Vivienne Westwood might be dismissed as a crank with causes, after her long career of using her collection as a billboard for issues she believes in. But the veteran British designer is, in fact, a genius at making creativity concrete. That may not be an appropriate metaphor for Ms. Westwood’s cut-on-the curve clothes, each skirt with subtle seaming to cup the rear, and the models looking saucy even from behind high-top russet curls and a mask of white makeup.

The show opened with the climate change issue emblazoned on the front of an outfit. But the collection was more about artistry than activism. Splash-of-paint patterns and pretty aprons captured that insouciant sexiness that is a Westwood emblem. And in this collection a dress here and there, wrapped and draped to the body, proved that a great designer does not have to make only weird and wonderful clothes.